Knowledge institutions in Africa and their development 1960-2020:

Knowledge Institutions in Africa and their development 1960-2020 Sierra Leone Introduction This report about the development of the knowledge institutions in Sierra Leone was made as part of the preparations for the AfricaKnows! Conference (2 December 2020 - 28 February 2021) in Leiden and elsewhere, see www.africaknows.eu.

Reports like these can never be complete, and there might also be mistakes. Additions and corrections are welcome! Please send those to [email protected]

Highlights

1 Sierra Leone’s population increased from 2.3 million in 1960, via 4.3 million in 1990, to 8 million in 2020. 2 Sierra Leone’s literacy rate is Low: 43% (15 years and older, 2018) 3 The so-called education index (used as part of the human development index) improved between 1990 (earlier data not available) and 2018: from .190 to .403 (it can vary between 0 and 1). 4 Regional inequality in education is high throughout the period, although it decreased between 2010 and 2018. Western Urban always had the best position, Pujehun, followed by Koinadugu the worst. Pujehun had the fastest development, and Western Urban the slowest. 5 The Mean Years of Schooling for adults increased between 1990 and 2018, from 1.58 years to 3.60 years. There is very high regional inequality throughout the period. 6 The Expected Years of Schooling for children improved considerably: from 4.94 to 10.2 years. There is high regional inequality. 7 Tertiary education in Sierra Leone already started in 1827. Currently there are seven public tertiary knowledge institutions in Sierra Leone and four private ones. There are 13,000 students in Sierra Leone’s higher education institutions. 8 According to the 4ICU website Sierra Leone does not have any institutes in the continent’s top 200. 9 Sierra Leone’s think tanks: we found information on six think tanks in Sierra Leone, all located in . 10 Museums: Sierra Leone has three known museums, all located in Freetown.

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Knowledge institutions in Africa and their development 1960-2020: Sierra Leone

Part 1: The story

Sierra Leone’s demographic and education development Sierra Leone is a country on the south west coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia and Guinea. The name Sierra Leone comes from the Lion Mountains near Freetown. Originally named Serra Leoa (Portuguese for "Lioness Mountains") by Portuguese explorer Pedro de Sintra in 1462. Later on the name was Italianized by Venetian explorer Alvise Cadamosto. The Italianized name was adapted by other European mapmakers.

Following a history of African-American settlements (people freed by the British during the revolutionary war) beginning in 1787, Sierra Leone became a British colony in 1808. The country gained independence in 1961, with Sir Milton Margai becoming the country’s first prime minister. In 1960, Sierra Leone had 2.3 million inhabitants, which has increased to 8.0 million in 2020. The population is growing with around 2.1% yearly, with an obvious dip during the civil war and a spike right after that war. The life expectancy is 55.9 (55 for men and 56.8 for women), while it was 32.5 in 1960 (31.4 for men and 33.5 for women). Currently, 43% of the population is urban, with most of them living in Freetown, the country’s capital (population of ca 0.8 million). The urban population has increased from 17% in 1960 to 43% in 2020.

Sierra Leone’s life expectancy increased from 31 years for males and 34 years for females in 1960 to 55 years for males and 57 years for females currently. The median age first decreased from 21.0 years in 1960 to 17.7 years in 2000. Since then, it started to increase and is presently 19.4 years. In 1960 an average woman gave birth to 6.0 live-born children, which increased to 6.7 in 1985. Since then, the fertility rate is decreasing and currently an average woman gives birth to 4.3 live-born children1.

1 https://www.worldometers.info/demographics/sierra-leone-demographics/ 2

Knowledge institutions in Africa and their development 1960-2020: Sierra Leone

Source: Geographicguide.com

Literacy and enrolment According to UNESCO the adult literacy rate in Sierra Leone was 43% in 2018 (52% for men and 35% for women). Of the youth (15-24 years old) 229,000 males and 289,000 females were regarded as illiterate in 2018. For the adult population as a whole these figures are 1.1 million for males and 1.5 million for females. Sierra Leone’s population of primary school age children (6-11 years) is about 1.2 million children2. Education is compulsory from age 6 to age 14 (9 years). The net enrolment of the primary school age group was 98% in 2016 (more recent data unavailable). The number of children with the age to attend secondary school (12-18) is 1.2 million. 42% are attending secondary school according to the latest figures (2018): males 43% and females lagging slightly behind at 41%. Finally, 663,000 people are in the age category to attend tertiary education (people between 19 and 23). The gross enrolment rate for tertiary education was

2 http://uis.unesco.org/en/country/sl 3

Knowledge institutions in Africa and their development 1960-2020: Sierra Leone only 2.0% (1.1% for women, 2.8% for men) in 2002 (latest data available).3 If this percentage would still be the same this would mean that there are 1currently 3,000 students in Sierra Leone’s higher education institutions. Campusfrance does not give information about students in and outside Sierra Leone4.

Regional differentiation of education results, 1990-2018 The information provided by the Globaldatalab about the subregional human development index, its components and its indicators (https://globaldatalab.org/shdi) provides data for the period between 1990 and 2018, for 14 districts in Sierra Leone (see map and list below). As of 2017, the country is divided into 16 districts. Bo Bombali Kailahun Kambia Kenema Koinadugu Kono Port Loko Pujehun Tonkolili Western Rural Western Urban

Source: wikipedia

The Globaldatalab provides data about the education index (one of the three indexes that together form the Human Development Index), and about two relevant indicators: mean years of schooling, showing the average education level of the adult population per region, and expected years of education, showing the expected number of years current children will attend schools. This excludes Islamic religious schools and only deals with the official, state-based, school system. We present the data for the years 1990 (earliest year available), 2000, 2010, and 2018 (the latest year available at the moment). See tables 1-4 in part 2 (‘the data’).

Education index The education index has improved in all of Sierra Leone’s districts between 1990 and 2010 (see table 1 in part 2). Performing best throughout is Western Urban (the region where the capital is located). Despite performing best throughout the period, Western Urban has the slowest development. The region with the fastest development is Pujehun (south Sierra Leone), which is the region that performed worst in 1990 and 2000. Regional inequality is

3 https://www.indexmundi.com/facts/sierra-leone/school-enrollment 4 https://ressources.campusfrance.org/publications/mobilite_pays/en/ 4

Knowledge institutions in Africa and their development 1960-2020: Sierra Leone very high in 1990 and 2000, and 2010. It is much lower in 2018, though still high. This was not so much caused by an improvement in the worst district as by a deterioration in the best district. There does not appear to be a strong correlation between population growth and educational development. We compare 1990 with 2018. See table 2 in part 2. Mean years of education According to UNESCO, ‘Mean Years of Schooling’ is an indicator about the “average number of completed years of education of a country's population aged 25 years and older, excluding years spent repeating individual grades”.5

The educational standard of the adult population of Sierra Leone has improved in all of the regions between 1990 and 2018 (see table 3 in part 2). Regional inequality has been very high throughout the period although there is a sharp decline of inequality between 2010 and 2018. Performing best throughout is Western Urban. Despite performing best throughout the period, Western Urban has the slowest development. The region with the fastest development is Koinadugu, which is the region that performed worst throughout the period.

Expected years of education UNDP defines the ‘expected years of schooling’ as the: “Number of years of schooling that a child of school entrance age can expect to receive if prevailing patterns of age-specific enrolment rates persist throughout the child’s life”.6

For Sierra Leonean children educational prospects have improved in all of the regions between 1990 and 2018 (see table 4 in part 2). Regional inequality has been high throughout the period. Performing best throughout is Western Urban. Again, despite performing best throughout the period, Western Urban has the slowest development. The region with the fastest development is Pujehun, which is the region that performed worst in 1990, 2000 and 2010.

Sierra Leone’s tertiary knowledge development Historically the development of the number of universities is as given in the table below. Currently there are 11 tertiary education institutions in Sierra Leone, seven public and four private. Two private institutions have a religious affiliation. Most institutions are located in the capital Freetown. See tables 5 and 6 in part 2. Sierra Leone’s universities 1960-2019

Type 1960 1970 1980 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 public 1 3 3 4 4 4 6 6 7 7 private 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 3 4 total 1 4 4 5 5 5 7 8 10 11

Public universities in Sierra Leone

5 http://uis.unesco.org/en/glossary-term/mean-years-schooling 6 http://hdr.undp.org/en/content/expected-years-schooling-children-years 5

Knowledge institutions in Africa and their development 1960-2020: Sierra Leone

Fourah Bay College7

Fourah Bay College is a public university in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Founded on 18 February 1827, it is the first western-style university built in West Africa. It is a constituent college of the University of Sierra Leone (USL).

Njala University8

Private universities in Sierra Leone Founded in 2005, the University of Makeni was the first private (Catholic) university in Sierra Leone.

7 Source: https://www.pambazuka.org/education/fourah-bay-college-dying-not-dead 8 Source: https://njala.edu.sl/about/njala-campus-photos 6

Knowledge institutions in Africa and their development 1960-2020: Sierra Leone

University of Makeni9

Regional distribution of Sierra Leone’s Universities Eight out of eleven institutes are located in or near the capital Freetown, in the region Western Urban. The other institutes are located in 3 of the other districts. See table 7 of part 2.

Think tanks in Sierra Leone

CESPA10 We included six think tanks and research institutes in table 8, part 2. Museums in Sierra Leone

National Museum of Sierra Leone11, see: http://www.sierraleoneheritage.org/museum/history

9 Source: http://makenitrustfund.org.uk/wordpress/?page_id=1299 10 http://cespasl.com/wpimages/wpd383ca37_06.png 11 http://www.sierraleoneheritage.org/storage/assets/images/banners/museum/2.jpg 7

Knowledge institutions in Africa and their development 1960-2020: Sierra Leone

National Railway Museum12 We included three functioning museums in table 9, part 2.

12 http://www.sierraleoneheritage.org/storage/assets/images/banners/museum/3.jpg 8

Knowledge institutions in Africa and their development 1960-2020: Sierra Leone

Part 2: The Data

Table 1: Sierra Leone: Education index 1990-201813 District 1990 2000 2010 2018 2018/1990 Bo 0.195 0.276 0.360 0.429 2.10 Bombali 0.204 0.290 0.376 0.399 1.96 Bonthe 0.146 0.208 0.264 0.290 1.99 Kailahun 0.163 0.232 0.311 0.364 2.23 Kambia 0.133 0.188 0.243 0.300 2.26 Kenema 0.175 0.248 0.321 0.396 2.26 Koinadugu 0.105 0.149 0.208 0.279 2.66 Kono 0.181 0.256 0.320 0.370 2.04 Moyamba 0.150 0.213 0.276 0.291 1.94 Port Loko 0.162 0.229 0.296 0.363 2.24 Pujehun 0.097 0.138 0.209 0.301 3.10 Tonkolili 0.142 0.201 0.278 0.310 2.18 Western Rural 0.229 0.327 0.437 0.473 2.10 Western Urban 0.341 0.487 0.607 0.568 1.67 Total 0.190 0.270 0.349 0.403 2.12 Inequality 3.5 3.5 2.9 2.0

Table 2: Sierra Leone: changes in regional population between 1990 and 2018; population numbers in millions District 1990 2000 2010 2018 2018/1990 Bo 0.38 0.40 0.55 0.66 1.74 Bombali 0.39 0.42 0.56 0.64 1.64 Bonthe 0.16 0.16 0.24 0.20 1.25 Kailahun 0.21 0.23 0.36 0.49 2.33 Kambia 0.34 0.36 0.42 0.35 1.03 Kenema 0.32 0.34 0.56 0.75 2.34 Koinadugu 0.28 0.30 0.37 0.41 1.46 Kono 0.27 0.28 0.38 0.51 1.89 Moyamba 0.15 0.16 0.28 0.35 2.33 Port Loko 0.46 0.49 0.72 0.68 1.48 Pujehun 0.18 0.19 0.27 0.30 1.67 Tonkolili 0.41 0.44 0.61 0.51 1.24 Western Rural 0.17 0.18 0.22 0.57 3.35 Western Urban 0.60 0.64 0.88 1.24 2.07 Total 4.32 4.59 6.42 7.65

13 The HDI data, and its components go from 0 (worst level) to 1 (best level). We present the figures x 1000. The inequality figure is the highest value divided by the lowest value in a particular year. 9

Knowledge institutions in Africa and their development 1960-2020: Sierra Leone

Table 3: Sierra Leone: Regional data for ‘mean years of schooling District 1990 2000 2010 2018 2018/1990 Bo 1.48 2.15 2.91 3.39 2.29 Bombali 1.34 1.95 2.61 3.04 2.27 Bonthe 1.00 1.46 2.06 2.49 2.49 Kailahun 1.06 1.54 2.17 2.78 2.62 Kambia 0.56 0.81 1.17 1.68 3.00 Kenema 1.13 1.64 2.44 3.26 2.88 Koinadugu 0.37 0.54 0.83 1.41 3.81 Kono 1.11 1.62 2.16 2.66 2.40 Moyamba 1.17 1.70 2.12 2.08 1.78 Port Loko 1.08 1.57 2.13 2.96 2.74 Pujehun 0.63 0.92 1.39 2.15 3.41 Tonkolili 0.67 0.98 1.59 1.64 2.45 Western Rural 2.54 3.70 4.99 5.20 2.05 Western Urban 4.64 6.75 8.48 7.15 1.54 Total 1.58 2.30 3.06 3.60 2.28 Inequality 12.5 12.5 10.2 5.1

Table 4: Sierra Leone: Regional data for ‘expected years of schooling District 1990 2000 2010 2018 2018/1990 Bo 5.23 7.36 9.48 11.4 2.18 Bombali 5.75 8.09 10.4 10.7 1.86 Bonthe 4.06 5.72 7.04 7.46 1.84 Kailahun 4.61 6.49 8.58 9.75 2.11 Kambia 4.12 5.80 7.33 8.80 2.14 Kenema 4.95 6.96 8.63 10.4 2.10 Koinadugu 3.34 4.70 6.49 8.36 2.50 Kono 5.17 7.28 8.94 10.1 1.95 Moyamba 3.99 5.61 7.38 7.97 2.00 Port Loko 4.53 6.37 8.11 9.50 2.10 Pujehun 2.74 3.86 5.86 8.27 3.02 Tonkolili 4.31 6.07 8.09 9.19 2.13 Western Rural 5.21 7.33 9.73 10.8 2.07 Western Urban 6.70 9.42 11.7 11.9 1.78 Total 4.94 6.95 8.90 10.2 2.06 Inequality 2.4 2.4 2.0 1.60

Table 5: Public universities in Sierra Leone

University Year of establishment Location 1827 Freetown (http://fourahbaycollege.net/index.php)

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Knowledge institutions in Africa and their development 1960-2020: Sierra Leone

Njala University (NU) (https://njala.edu.sl/) 1964 Main campus (4icu rank: 1 in Sierra Leone, and 8178 located in Freetown worldwide) Freetown Polytechic (FP) 1964 Freetown (http://freetownpolytechnic.edu.sl/) (4icu rank: 7 in Sierra Leone, and 13250 worldwide) Sierra Leone Law School 1990 Freetown (http://lawschool.edu.sl/home/4560888367) Eastern Polytechnic (EP) 2001 Kenema (https://easternpolytechnic.edu.sl/) (4icu rank: 6 in Sierra Leone, and 12964 worldwide) University of Sierra Leone (USL) 2005 (1827) Freetown (https://usl.edu.sl/) (4icu rank: 2 in Sierra Leone, and 9522 worldwide) As of May 2005, the University of Sierra Leone was reconstituted into the individual colleges of Fourah Bay College and Njala University college. Ernest Bai Koroma University of Science and 2014 Magburaka Technology (EBKUST) (https://ebkust.edu.sl/) (4icu rank: 4 in Sierra Leone, and 11492 worldwide) Sources: Wikipedia, university websites, WHED, and 4ICU

Table 6: Private universities in Sierra Leone

University Year of Location Religious establishment affiliation Milton Margai College of Education and 1963 Freetown no Technology (MMCET) (https://mmcet.edu.sl/) (4icu rank: 5 in Sierra Leone, and 12187 worldwide) University of Makeni (UNIMAK) 2009 Makeni yes (http://www.universityofmakeni.com/wordpress/) (4icu rank: 3 in Sierra Leone, and 10019 worldwide) BlueCrest College 2014 Freetown no (https://sl.bluecrestcollege.com/index.php) (regional Presumably this is a private institution. institution, also located in Ghana) United Methodist University 2017 Freetown yes Sources: Wikipedia, university websites, WHED and 4ICU Table 7: Regional distribution of universities in Sierra Leone

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Knowledge institutions in Africa and their development 1960-2020: Sierra Leone

District Public Private Total Number per million inhabitants Bo 0 0 0 0 Bombali 0 1 1 1.6 Bonthe 0 0 0 0 Kailahun 0 0 0 0 Kambia 0 0 0 0 Kenema 1 0 1 1.3 Koinadugu 0 0 0 0 Kono 0 0 0 0 Moyamba 0 0 0 0 Port Loko 0 0 0 0 Pujehun 0 0 0 0 Tonkolili 1 0 1 2.0 Western Rural 0 0 0 0 Western Urban 5 3 8 6.5 Total 7 4 11 1.4

For the last column we used the population numbers as given in table 2.

Table 8: think tanks in Sierra Leone

Name Year established Where Centre for Economic and Social 2000 Freetown Policy Analysis (CESPA) (http://cespasl.com/aboutus.html) Sierra Leone Agricultural Research 2007 Freetown Institute (SLARI) (http://www.slari.gov.sl/) Centre for Alternative Policy Freetown Research and Innovation Institute for Policy Analysis and Freetown Research (IPAR) Institute for Governance Reform Freetown (http://igrsl.org/) Sierra Leone Urban Research Freetown Centre (SLURC) (https://www.slurc.org/) Sources: Wikipedia, think tank websites.

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Knowledge institutions in Africa and their development 1960-2020: Sierra Leone

Table 9: Museums in Sierra Leone

Museum Website Location Sierra Leone http://www.sierraleoneheritage.org/museum Freetown National Museum Sierra Leone http://www.sierraleoneheritage.org/museum/railway- Freetown National Railway museum Museum Sierra Leone Peace https://www.sierraleonetrc.org/index.php/sierra- Freetown Museum leone-peace-museum (source: Wikipedia and museum/government websites) ------This report was made by Jade Szegedi (minor student African Dynamics in 2019/2020, and studying Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology at Leiden University; the minor programme was supervised by Marleen Dekker and Madi Ditmars, responsible for this Minor programme of Leiden, Delft and Rotterdam Universities) and revised and extended by Maaike Westra and Ton Dietz (African Studies Centre Leiden).

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